KATHMANDU - Nepal suffered their second consecutive defeat in the Utrecht leg of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 after Netherlands completed a six-wicket win at Sportpark Maarschalkerweerd on Thursday.
Chasing 158, Netherlands reached 158/4 in 44.1 overs, with captain Scott Edwards anchoring the chase with an unbeaten 61 from 89 balls. Noah Croes remained not out on 34 from 59 deliveries as the hosts crossed the target with 35 balls to spare.
Nepal had a brief opening in the chase after reducing Netherlands to 47/3. Sompal Kami bowled Max O'Dowd for nine, Dipendra Singh Airee removed Cedric de Lange for 21, and Lalit Rajbanshi dismissed Bas de Leede for one.
Zach Lion-Cachet was then run out for 21, leaving Netherlands at 73/4 in 22.4 overs. But Edwards and Croes added an unbroken 85-run stand for the fifth wicket to deny Nepal any late comeback.
Earlier, Netherlands won the toss and elected to field first. Nepal’s batting failed to recover from a top-order collapse, slipping to 42/4 inside 12 overs. Aarif Sheikh top-scored with 41 from 90 balls, while Gulshan Jha made 29 and Dipendra added 21.
Alex Roy and Roelof van der Merwe took three wickets each for Netherlands. Roy returned 3/24, while Van der Merwe finished with 3/15. Logan van Beek picked up 2/21 and Kyle Klein took one wicket.
For Nepal, Lalit bowled a tight spell of 1/22 from 10 overs, while Dipendra conceded only eight runs in his four overs and took one wicket. Sompal also picked up one wicket.
The defeat leaves Nepal without a win from their first two matches of the Netherlands tri-series, following their earlier loss to Namibia by eight wickets. Nepal will next face Namibia again on July 27.
